Friday, April 4, 2014

Goddesschess is funding prizes for the chess femmes who participate in the Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIX on April 12, 2014, woo woo! The same as we've done for several previous challenges: in the Open, $40 for a win, $20 for a draw; in the Reserve, $20 for a win, $10 for a draw. Entry fees to Challenge XX will also be paid for the top finishing female player in the Open and Reserve Sections, if she chooses to register.

Goddesschess is also once again providing special gift bags to the top female finisher in each of the Open and Reserve Sections. I have so much fun shopping for chessly items. Be it noted that my definition of "chessly items" has somewhat expanded over the past several Challenges, as such unique items are rather difficult to find...

Challenge XIX is being held at the gorgeous Olympia Resort, a totally new venue:

Life Master Sheldon Gelbart will also be providing post-game analysis to anyone who inquires. I've quite got over my fear of him, LOL! His insight is incredible, and his enthusiasm for our wonderful game - I would put him up against anyone! I have kibbutzed during many analyses he has provided to players at all levels during various Challenges, and have always walked away feeling so enlightened based on what he said. If only I could remember it all...alas.

I will be following reports of the action closely at the Southwest Chess Club's blog, where results and photos will be posted. In Challenge XVIII, Goddesschess paid out a record amount of prize money to the Chess Femmes. Can we do it again???

Dutch doubt where to return Crimean gold

Should Dutch museum holding Crimean gold and treasures give them back to Ukraine or Russia?

By Toby Sterling, Associated Press8 hours ago

A spiraling torque from the second century A.D., is displayed as part of the exhibit called
The Crimea - Gold and Secrets of the Black Sea

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- A Dutch historical museum got more than the bronze swords, golden helmets and precious gems it bargained for when it organized an exhibition on ancient treasures from Ukraine: it also inherited a diplomatic mess.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula a month after the Allard Pierson museum opened the "Crimea — Gold and secrets of the Black Sea" exhibition in February. Curators say now they are not sure where to return the objects on display when it ends in August.

Officials from both Ukraine and Russia insist the Crimean treasures must be returned to them.

The museum has enlisted experts from the University of Amsterdam and the Dutch Foreign Ministry for advice on what to do now.

Among the most stunning objects in the exhibition are a solid gold Scythian helmet from the 4th century B.C. and a golden neck ornament from the second century A.D. that weigh more than a kilogram (two pounds) each.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry asked the Dutch ambassador in Kiev last week to guarantee the safe return of the collection to Ukraine.

The country's culture minister Evhen Nishchuk said it was his office that approved the exhibition in the first place — in one of the largest releases of the country's historical collections abroad ever authorized — and it must return via the same route.

"This is about the national security of the cultural heritage of the Ukrainian state," Nishchuk said in a statement.

But four of the five museums that contributed artifacts are located in Crimea.

Somewhat poignantly, a major theme of the exhibition is the region's history of frequent conquests and as a crossroads for different peoples and cultures: modern Sevastapol was once the site of a Greek colony that traded grain for pottery from the Athenian Empire.

In the grave of a noblewoman who lived on Crimea's west coast in the first century A.D., archaeologists recovered an Egyptian scarab, Roman pots from Italy and France, and a Han dynasty lacquer box thought to have come from China via the Silk Road.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's culture envoy Mikhail Shvydkoi said the treasures must be returned to Crimea — but he acknowledged the situation is awkward.

"Since Crimea became part of another country, we have got a legal issue here but we're going to find a solution for it," Shvydkoi said.

The exhibition was put together by one of the most prominent archaeologists of the region, Valentina Mordvintseva. In the exhibition documents, she is listed as based at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in Simferopol, Crimea.

_____

Associated Press reporter Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this story from Moscow.

It's just a few weeks away now, woo woo! Someday perhaps I will be able to travel to British Columbia, I really would like to see that part of the world.

So far there are 89 pre-registered players in the Premier and U1800 Sections, plus another 15 players in the YCC. The highest rated female players are WGM Katerine Rohonyan, who lives in Seattle, Washington (USA) FIDE 2299, CFC 2351 and Alice Xiao, FIDE 1874, CFC 2007, living in Vancouver. I did not see WFM Chouchanik Airapetian's name on the list, so she must have withdrawn. Darn. No re-match of the two top female players from last year's event after all.

But this also opens up the possibility for other chess femmes to win Goddesschess prizes!

Stay tuned. As we are still quite a way out from final registration I won't have a full list of female competitors for awhile yet. Last year, Rohonyan finished in 4th place in the Open with 4.5/6, just out of tournament prize money (but she won top Goddesschess prize).

Wow - I don't know why I didn't ever read before about menhirs in India! I had no idea there were any there. I've always thought of menhirs as Celtic -- in France, England, Wales and Scotland. Guess now they're Indo-European...

Mizoram has made an entry into India’s archaeological map. In a first, the Ministry of Culture has declared a 9,000 sq m area dotted with several caves, and more than a hundred menhirs embossed with figures of humans, animals and weapons as an ancient site of national importance.

Some 170 menhirs, each at least as tall as a man, stand at the site at Champhai district’s Vangchhia village, which lies on the bank of the Tiau river that separates India and Myanmar.

Villagers call the site “Kawtchhuah Ropui” (The Great Gateway) and have protected these monuments for years in spite of not being sure what they represent or how they came to be there.

The Mizoram chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) along with the state’s Art & Culture Separtment has been studying the menhirs, seeking help from the Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI) in interpreting the embossing.

There has been no significant breakthrough yet, either in reading the carvings or in understanding why the menhirs are there.

The ministry’s notification declares the menhirs, as well as the ground on which they stand, the surrounding caves and forest as protected.

INTACH is hopeful that studies on the menhirs and the figures on them will shed more light on the history of the Mizos, much of which was never documented. The community followed an unwritten, oral tradition until a script was developed a little over a century ago.

Menhirs with similar images have also been found in parts of eastern Mizoram including at Chawngtlai village near Khawzawl town and, according to Mizo historian B Lalthangliana, in the Chin Hills of Myanmar.

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Where the heck is Mizoram? A quick Google search -- I had no idea that India had those northeastern provinces. It's like that area was tacked on to the country as an afterthought.

It's been more than a year since experts announced the remains found in a car park in Leicester were those of King Richard III - but now experts have raised serious concerns about the findings. Michael Hicks, from Winchester University, and archaeologist Martin Biddle, from the Winchester Research Unit, are challenging the results of the DNA testing, and the accuracy of the radiocarbon dating. They are even calling for a coroner's court to be set up to independently review all of the evidence. [Who are they and what is their stake in this?]

The University of Leicester concluded the remains belonged to the king during a press conference in February last year, after the body was excavated in September 2012. They claimed DNA samples matched that of a descendant of the king's maternal line, while the skeleton's spinal curvature also matched accounts of the humpback royal.

The team used radiocarbon dating to determine when the skeleton died, and said this confirmed it was around the same time the king was killed during the Battle of Boswroth in 1485. Speaking to BBC History Magazine, Professor Hicks argued the remains could belong to a victim of any of the battles fought during the Wars of the Roses: 'Lots of other people who suffered similar wounds could have been buried in the choir of the church where the bones were found,' he explained. He also queried the project's use of radiocarbon dating, which dates the bones to the period of Richard’s death: 'Such a technique is imprecise. It will give you an era, but nothing more. In this case, it covers a period of 80 years.'

Professor Hicks went on to question the prominence given to DNA testing in claims about the identity of the remains, too, adding: 'The DNA match could equally be the result of the bones being those of someone descended in the female line from Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville.' [Like - who, for instance?]

King Richard’s grandmother, Joan Beaufort, for example, had 16 children, 'which made her the ancestor of much of the nobility of the Wars of the Roses - quite a few of whom died violently in those conflicts,' continued Professor Hicks. [Give us alternative names then, please. And were any of them hunchbacks?]

'Indeed, it is very hard to prove that the skeleton belongs to a specific person. The Leicester team themselves acknowledge that it’s extremely rare for archaeologists to find a known individual, let alone a king.'

The University of Leicester concluded the remains belonged to the king during a press conference in February last year after the body was excavated in September 2012. The skeleton was described of that of a slender male, in his late 20s or early 30s. Richard was 32 when he died. Pictures also revealed a distinctive curvature of the spine synonymous with the hunchback king. There was, however, no evidence of a withered arm, which was also part of the Richard myth.

While DNA samples matched that of a descendant of the king's maternal line.The team used radiocarbon dating to determine when the skeleton died and said this confirmed it was around the same time the king was killed during the Battle of Bosworth in 1485. Trauma to the skeleton showed the king died after one of two significant wounds to the back of the skull - possibly caused by a sword and a halberd. Experts said this was consistent with contemporary accounts of the monarch being killed after receiving a blow to the head.

The skeleton also showed a number of non-fatal injuries to the head and rib and to the pelvis, which is believed to have been caused by a wound through the right buttock.

The remains were uncovered by archaeologists at former church in Leicester, which is now a social services car park.

Professor Hicks argued the remains could belong to a victim of any of the battles fought during the Wars of the Roses, as 'lots of other people who suffered similar wounds could have been buried in the choir of the church.' He also queried the project's use of radiocarbon dating, because it covers a wide period of 80 years. Professor Hicks added the DNA match could equally match anyone descended in the female line from Richard’s mother, Cecily Neville. King Richard’s grandmother, Joan Beaufort, for example, had 16 children.

Professor Biddle continued historians know very little about the graves in the east end of the church and is calling for a coroner's court, or similar, to review the evidence. Professor Biddle echoed these concerns: 'We know very little about the graves in the east end of the church. 'How many burials were made there in the three centuries of the friary’s existence, and indeed after the battle of Bosworth? Without further excavation there is no certainty. Before all this goes any further, it would be wise to be certain the body really is his. 'Something akin to a coroner’s court should be set up to consider all the evidence.'

In response to the claims Philippa Langley, who commissioned and paid for the excavation, said: 'To say it cannot be claimed ‘with any confidence’ that this is Richard is quite puzzling. 'Given the totality of the evidence, it can surely be said with considerable confidence. Hicks says that there may have been ‘lots of people with similar wounds’: perhaps he could name one who fits the bill?'

Richard, depicted by William Shakespeare as a monstrous tyrant who murdered two princes in the Tower of London, died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485, defeated by an army led by Henry Tudor.According to historical records, his body was taken 15 miles to Leicester where it was displayed as proof of his death, before being buried in the Franciscan friary.The team from Leicester University set out to trace the site of the old church and its precincts in 2012, including the site where Richard was finally laid to rest.They began excavating the city centre location in August and soon discovered the skeleton, which was found in good condition with its feet missing in a grave around 27 inches (68cm) below ground level.It was lying in a rough cut grave with the hands crossed in a manner which indicated they were bound when he was buried. To the naked eye, it was clear the remains had a badly curved spine and trauma injuries to the rear of the head. But archaeologists were keen to make no official announcement until the skeleton had been subjected to months of tests.

Meanwhile, a spokesperson from the University of Leicester added: 'The strength of the identification is that different kinds of evidence all point to the same result. Hicks is entitled to his views, but we would challenge and counter them.Professor Hicks concluded: 'I’m not saying that it’s not Richard - it’s perfectly conceivable that it is - but we are not in a position to say with any confidence that it’s him. Similarly, while the curved spine suggests the skeleton is Richard’s, the presence of scoliosis does not represent conclusive proof.'

Researchers in Spain have applied new remote sensing and aerial imaging to the Phoenician colony of Cabezo Pequeño del Estany of Guardamar under the project “Cultural Transfers in the Ancient Mediterranean” to begin a new round of archaeological works on the site.

The settlement was first discovered by chance in the late 1980s when it was partially destroyed by an illegal cement quarry and subsequently excavated in several seasons of rescue archaeology under the direction of Antonio García Menárguez, director of the Archaeological Museum of Guardamar.

The current joint work between the University and the Museum has raised interest in this spectacular site after recent consolidation work was photographed from the air showing the preserved sections of an impressive 2 metre high defensive wall, with projecting bastion and towers.

This wall, built between 900 and 850BCE contains eastern Mediterranean compartmented rooms within the main excavated structure, following a typical Phoenician pattern of internal architecture. The organisation and the size of the colony itself is one that is replicated in other such pioneer settlements, and the type of defence found here has close parallels in the Near East with sites such as Hazoror Qeiyafa in Israel, as can be clearly seen in the aerial images.

Seeking metal
The fortified site, was one of several that dotted the coastline of Spain, as traders sought the precious tin and other metals that could be obtained at the end of the known world. The peaceful abandonment of the settlement occurred around 700 BCE and, pending further research, may be due partially to the gradual silting up of the Segura estuary or even a succession of seismic events.

The data suggest that the population of Cabezo Pequeño del Estany moved to a larger location, on the seafront itself, which is now known as La Fonteta and lies preserved beneath the sand dunes of Guardamar.
Phoenician colonisation of this area is interesting as it is one of the few sites to be contained within a defensive wall such as is visible from the aerial images. In addition to the normal range of materials, such as pottery and Greek lamps, there is also ostrich shell, ivory and Egyptian scarabs.

Potential for steel working
However, the exceptional find is that of early metallurgical activity, not only involving tin and bronze working but potentially, steel.

Both the University of Alicante and the Archaeological Museum of Guardamar are now contemplating conducting future archaeological excavations at Cabezo Pequeño to better understand the activities of these early trading colonists.

If there are three priest-kings buried with the more treasures than Tut, I'll take a bite out of my wool beret and eat it!

These are desperate times in Egypt. We all know that tourism, the life-blood of modern Egypt, has fallen off some 95 to 98% during the continuing unrest of the past four years. Egypt went from Mubarak (a dictator), to a weak coalition government (a form of democracy), to an Islamic majority (another dictatorship), to a military coup. American tourists, who are considred "rich" by much of the world, are staying away in droves. Well, who can blame them? At least BBC is no longer broadcasting images of unemployed Egyptian males burning Americans in effigy and trampling the Stars and Stripes. Like I would EVER spend an American penny in your country, dudes? Ha!

An archaeology race is on to secure the ancient burial site of three Egyptian kings which contains relics that will outshine even that of Tutankhamun's, it has been claimed.

British archaeologist John Romer, 72, believes he has discovered the site where three ancient Egyptian priest kings - Herihor, Piankh and Menkheperre - were buried in Luxor, Egypt, almost 3,000 years ago.

He claims the burial ground will yield such magnificent treasures that those discovered in the nearby tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings will seem like a 'display in Woolworths' in comparison.

Like a plot out of an Indiana Jones movie, experts are now racing to secure the site called Wadi el-Gharbi, located in the cliffs on Luxor's west bank, before the arrival of so-called treasure hunters and tomb-raiders.

It is feared that ancient rock inscriptions surrounding the site, which has remained largely untouched since 1085BC, could be damaged by their quad bikes, rope ladders and other equipment. Last week, three people were arrested by the army security services at Luxor for entering it.

The only person known to have excavated at the site was Howard Carter - the man who first scratched a hole through the sealed doorway of Tutankhamun's burial chamber in 1922. Carter had previously cut trenches across the valley floor at the Wadi el-Gharbi site over the course of two weeks in 1916. He discovered huge mounds of limestone chippings on the wadi floor, identical to those found in the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. But Carter gave up on his excavations, possibly because he had little idea of what may be buried at the site. [Oh please. He was a fricken treasure hunter and did more damage than we'll ever possibly know.]

Romer has since focused on deciphering inscriptions left behind in the area by the royal workmen who laboured there.

Romer and his colleague, Alex Peden, have found the name of Herihor among 150 rock inscriptions.
Romer believes Carter was mistaken to restrict his search to the valley floor and claims the tomb is instead located higher up in the limestone cliffs which soar to around 1,000ft. He claims: Herihor is most likely to be buried in a coffin of gold, like Tutankhamun [250 years before]. There are likely to be canopic chests, objects of alabaster, gold-plated statues, and thrones, though possibly not chariots,.'

Romer, who has been researching the potential tomb for 40 years, still needs to secure a permit from Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities to carry out his search. He now fears he may be beaten to finding the tomb after discovering a rival expedition has already arrived at the area. Romer says he would be happy to forgo the chance of discovering the tomb so long as the excavation is done properly and keeps valuable inscriptions intact. [Dude, tomb robbers have already been there, courtesy of the Egyptian government.]

Ah ha! Okay okay, you guys all know that I'm considered a nut case because I do believe there is more than just myth about Noah's Ark. As to what kind of god would allow himself, the Supreme Creator of the Entire Universe, to get so pissed off at a bunch of puny humans who thumbed their noses at his teachings that he determined to not only punish them but also kill millions of innocent animals and infants, I leave that to theologians to debate. Whether one believes in a great flood or not, I do believe there is more and more evidence becoming available all the time pointing to a sort of "explosion" of civilization coming out of the region of Ararat and mountains in Turkey and spreading then into the Fertile Crescent around 9500 BCE. This is just another piece of the puzzle.

Date: March 28, 2014
Source: University of Missouri - Columbia
Summary: The genetic history of 134 cattle breeds from around the world has been completed by a group of researchers. In the process of completing this history, they found that ancient domesticated African cattle originated in the 'Fertile Crescent,' a region that covered modern day Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Israel.

Geneticist and anthropologists previously suspected that ancient Africans domesticated cattle native to the African continent nearly 10,000 years ago. Now, a team of University of Missouri researchers has completed the genetic history of 134 cattle breeds from around the world. In the process of completing this history, they found that ancient domesticated African cattle originated in the "Fertile Crescent," a region that covered modern day Iraq, Jordan, Syria and Israel.

Lead researcher Jared Decker, an assistant professor of animal science in the MU College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, says the genetics of these African cattle breeds are similar to those of cattle first domesticated in the Middle East nearly 10,000 years ago, proving that those cattle were brought to Africa as farmers migrated south. Those cattle then interbred with wild cattle, or aurochs, which were native to the region, and changed their genetic makeup enough to confuse geneticists.In their study published in PLOS Genetics, Decker and a team of international researchers compared the similarities and differences among the genetics of many different cattle breeds to determine how the breeds are related. Their research found mixing of native cattle in Indonesia with imports from India, European and African cattle in Italy and Spain, and European and Asian cattle in Korea and Japan. The MU researchers also determined that unique American cattle breeds, such as Texas longhorns, are the result of breeding between Spanish cattle, transported from Europe by explorers in the 16th century, and breeds of Zebu, or Brahman cattle from India imported into the U.S. from Brazil in the late 1800s. Decker says these discoveries help advance genetics and uncover important information about human history.

"In many ways, the history of cattle genetics mirrors human history," Decker said. "In the case of African cattle, anthropologists and geneticists used to suspect that domesticated African cattle were native to the continent, when in fact, they were brought by migrating peoples thousands of years ago. By better understanding the history of the animals we domesticate, we can better understand ourselves."Decker also said that cattle breeding is important for animal farmers looking to maximize their herds' meat and dairy production. He says that understanding the genetic history of cattle breeds is important when looking for solutions to agricultural issues.

"Now that we have this more complete genetic history of cattle worldwide, we can better understand the diversity of the species," Decker said. "By understanding the variations present, we can improve cattle for agricultural purposes, whether that is through breeding more disease-resistant animals or finding ways to increase dairy or beef production."

Well! I could say plenty about this but will suffice to suggest that the tattooing of the name "Michael" on her inner thigh may have been meant to be a warning to maintain chastity, and not for "protection" as the story alleges; and that perhaps this branding was a predecessor to the later more grotestque form of assuring a woman's "virtue" by cutting off her clitoris. Then again, an entirely different interepretation could be given to this tattoo:

Part of image of female mummy from article.

I don't think it's a stretch to suggest that this could also represent a vulva and a phallic symbol, incorporating a clever bit of old magic by using the cross (which predates Christianity by thousands of years) as the phallic symbol. Hmmm...

London: A tattoo of a man’s name has been discovered by scientists on the inner thigh of a 1,300-year-old mummy.Egyptologists at the British Museum made the startling discovery while examining the ancient mummified body of a Sudanese woman, thought to have died around 700 AD.

The symbol, tattooed on the skin of the inner thigh of her right leg, spells out the ancient Greek characters M-I-X-A-H-A, which translates as Michael. But it’s not for a secret lover however, as the tattoo is thought to be a protective biblical symbol representing the Archangel Michael.

It appears in the New Testament Book of Revelations as a protector and leader of God’s armies against the forces of Satan.

He’s also the patron saint of medieval Sudan. Dr Daniel Antoine said, “You can see her tattoo really clearly using infra red reflectography. The tattoo on her right inner thigh represents a monogram that spells Michael in ancient Greek. She is the first evidence of a tattoo from this period. This is a very rare find.”

Experts still don’t know what length of skirts were fashionable in ancient Sudan, so it’s hard to say whether her ink would have been visible. But thousands of people will see it every day when the mummy goes on public display for the first time in May.

Before ancient DNA exposed the sexual proclivities of Neanderthals or the ancestry of the first Americans, there was the quagga.

An equine oddity with the head of a zebra and the rump of a donkey, the last quagga (Equus quagga quagga) died in 1883. [What a dirty rotten shame that we let that happen then, and we're still letting it happen today. When a species goes extinct, do we not also lose a piece of our own herstory?] A century later, researchers published1 around 200 nucleotides sequenced from a 140-year-old piece of quagga muscle. Those scraps of DNA — the first genetic secrets pulled from a long-dead organism — revealed that the quagga was distinct from the mountain zebra (Equus zebra).

More significantly, the research showed that from then on, examining fossils would no longer be the only way to probe extinct life. “If the long-term survival of DNA proves to be a general phenomenon,” geneticists Russell Higuchi and Allan Wilson of the University of California, Berkeley, and their colleagues noted in their quagga paper1, “several fields including palaeontology, evolutionary biology, archaeology and forensic science may benefit.”

At first, progress was fitful. Concerns over the authenticity of ancient-DNA research fuelled schisms in the field and deep scepticism outside it. But this has faded, thanks to laboratory rigour that borders on paranoia and sequencing techniques that help researchers to identify and exclude contaminating modern DNA.

These advances have fostered an ancient-genomics boom. In the past year, researchers have unveiled the two oldest genomes on record: those of a horse that had been buried in Canadian permafrost for around 700,000 years2, and of a roughly 400,000-year-old human relative from a Spanish cavern3. A Neanderthal sequence every bit as complete and accurate as a contemporary human genome has been released4, as has the genome of a Siberian child connecting Native Americans to Europeans5.

Enabling this rush are technological improvements in isolating, sequencing and interpreting the time-ravaged DNA strands in ancient remains such as bones, teeth and hair. Pioneers are obtaining DNA from ever older and more degraded remains, and gleaning insight about long-dead humans and other creatures. And now ancient DNA is set to move from the clean-rooms of specialists to the labs of archaeologists, population geneticists and others. Thirty years after the quagga led the way, Nature looks to the field's future.

Our Commitment to Chess

Scholarships for Chess Femmes

Our Commitment to Chess

2012 Goddesschess Canadian Women's Closed Chess Championship

2014 SPONSORSHIPS

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XIXApril 12, 2014Milwaukee, WIPrizes for female players in Open and Reserve sections and paid entry to next HCCC for top female finisher in each section. This is Goddesschess' 12th HCCC!

Goddesschess Fighting Spirit Award

2013 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

2013 SPONSORSHIPS

Hales Corners Chess Challenge XVIIIOctober 12, 2013Milwaukee, WIRecord prize money awarded to chess femmes - $800!In honor of National Chess Day and the one year anniversary of the passing of our webmaster, researcher and writer, Don McLean, additional prizes of $150 were awarded to the top two male finishers in each Section.Milwaukee Summer Challenge IIJune 15 - 16, 2013Milwaukee, WIPrizes for the chess femmes and funding a best game prize

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"Advanced Chess" Leon 2002

About Me

I'm one of the founders of Goddesschess, which went online May 6, 1999. I earned an under-graduate degree in history and economics going to college part-time nights, weekends and summer school while working full-time, and went on to earn a post-graduate degree (J.D.) I love the challenge of research, and spend my spare time reading and writing about my favorite subjects, travelling and working in my gardens. My family and my friends are most important in my life. For the second half of my life, I'm focusing on "doable" things to help local chess initiatives, starting in my own home town. And I'm experiencing a sort of personal "Renaissance" that is leaving me rather breathless...